by Forma Vital | Oct 19, 2017 | Our blog |
When we want to lose weight, it’s common to look for the fastest and easiest way to achieve it. Unfortunately, many of these “fad diets” may bring along a lot more trouble than overweight itself. Being aware of the health risks we are exposed to when dieting on our own can help us make wiser decisions when it comes to losing weight.
Fad diets
Miraculous diets have become more fashionable and accessible in the digital era, where any crazy advice is just a click away. Fad diets promise a super speed weight loss, and even a longer life without any scientific evidence. Many of them are also characterized by highly restrictive and unusual food choices.
These diets are popular because they produce significant weight loss at the beginning, mostly by dangerously reducing your caloric intake. Typically, these diets keep your daily caloric intake way under a healthy level (some diets based on liquids are even less than 500 calories). The problem is that such a fast weight loss is never a long-term one, and, in fact, many of these diets can put your health at risk.
Physical effects
When you reduce your caloric intake so drastically, your body enters into a “starving mode” and this slows your metabolism, that is, the rate at which you burn calories. This reduces weight loss as you continue dieting. Thereby, nutritionists recommend a very small decrease in your caloric intake according to each person’s weight and needs, but also a gradual increase after a dieting period.
In the worst scenario – mostly in prolonged use of low-calories diets –, your body begins to start using your muscle tissue for energy, instead of burning body fat. As a matter of fact, 25% to 50% of weight loss during a fad diet comes from muscle loss. In addition, most of the pounds you lose comes from water loss, essentially dehydration. If you just drink the equivalent amount of water, those pounds will be right back.
A non-balanced or an extremely restrictive diet has also a negative effect on our hormones. A body deprived from food becomes stressed and increases its cortisol levels, which sets the person up for weight gain rather than loss. You may like to read our article about “Why Can’t I lose Weight!”.
Psychological effects
Once you go off a fad diet, we usually go back to our old eating habits, and the pounds we lost with all that effort, inevitably come back. Even worse, when we deprive ourselves of food for long periods of time, we end up binge eating, which results in gaining even more weight than before we started the diet.
On the other hand, when we follow extremely restrictive diets, we can become obsessed with food. This obsession can prevent us from focusing at work or school, and makes us irritable and anxious.
Furthermore, if your diet is not yielding the results you were expecting, you may begin losing confidence, and you can develop an unhealthy relationship with food and body image which can lead to eating disorders.
Dieting wisely
Detox cleanses, weight-loss pills, metabolism boosters, and incredibly long lists of good vs bad foods are the driving force behind every miraculous diet and their dangerous health risks.
No fad diet will work miracles. Actually, the best diet is not a diet at all, but a lifestyle that includes a wide variety of foods, regular exercise, and healthy habits. Studies have shown that steady weight loss is more likely to last than any sudden weight loss. A healthy plan, supervised by a professional, aims for a loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week.
If you want to achieve a healthy weight, you should also include regular physical activity. There’s no need to pay fancy gyms, you can find yourself an activity you really enjoy by your own or with your friends; 30 to 60 minutes four of five times a week will be enough for most people.
Dieting can become a matter of risk when we’re not appropriately guided by a nutrition professional. Here, at Forma Vital, our therapists will give you a personalized plan tailored to your lifestyle and food preferences. Don’t wait any longer! #DoItNow and contact us, we’ll be more than glad to help you.
by Forma Vital | Oct 12, 2017 | Our blog |
If you’re one of many who diet once and again, but can’t stop overeating and you don’t lose even half a pound, you may find here the reason why.
According to some studies, 75% of overeating is due to emotions. Specialists claim that most of us use food as a self-comforter, instead of facing our emotions and solve our internal conflicts. Recognizing those emotions which make us overeat might be the first step to lose weight.
Why My Diet Doesn’t Work?
This is the million-dollar question but, generally, the answer is right behind our emotions. If we’re constantly on a diet it’s because we’ve entered a vicious circle: we overeat, so we gain some (or a lot of) weight, so we diet. Once we’re on a diet, we make up endless excuses to cheat and get off track. Obviously, we regain weight, so we diet again… once and again.
To break this vicious circle, you should first understand that neither food, nor weight is what really matters: they’re just symptoms of the real problem. We focus on achieving an “ideal” weight, or in the number of calories we consume, but we never ask ourselves what makes us overeat or eat when we’re not even hungry.
Emotional Feeding
For Geneen Roth (Breaking Free from Emotional Eating), worrying too much about our weight may mask deeper concerns, generally related to unsatisfied emotional needs, (such as lack of love). That’s why, when we eat compulsively, we’re not really trying to nourish our body, but to fill an internal void. Food substitutes our emotional balance.
That’s why, in the end, losing weight doesn’t make us happier, unless we solve our emotional conflicts first. Being thin does not fill that void which has no form, weight, or name. It doesn’t matter how well planned or effective a diet is if the person following it is not aware of the reasons which caused his/her overweight.
So…?
As we always say here at Forma Vital, what really matters about losing weight is not to meet any stereotype, but to have a healthy weight which leads us to a more fulfilling life. To achieve this, it’s important that we learn to recognize the role emotions play in how we eat and the food we choose. Below you’ll find some pieces of advice that can help you:
- Keep a food journal. Log everything you eat and how it makes you feel, physically and emotionally.
- Organize your meals. Do not skip any meal and try to keep a fixed schedule.
- Eat mindfully. Savor and enjoy your food consciously, not while watching TV or being distracted. You can see our article about mindful eating.
- Drink plenty of water. This will help you distinguish between real hunger (to nourish your body) and food cravings.
- Congratulate yourself on your good calls. Take your time to feel proud of who you are and the good decisions you take.
- Look for help when you need it. If you realize you cannot cope with your feelings or emotions by yourself, look for the help of a professional instead of indulging yourself with food.
Breaking out from our comfort zone is a real challenge, but it is the first big step to achieving a full and healthy life, physically and mentally. Don’t put it off until tomorrow, #DecideItNow.
by Forma Vital | Oct 5, 2017 | Our blog |
If you’re one of those persons who have eaten a delicious cake or a whole box of chocolates in one sitting, and your immediate thought is: “I shouldn’t have eaten that!”, then this blog is for you.
The Dangers of Feeling Guilt After Eating
Most of our problems with food, either overeating, having very little food, or even stop eating, are related with our emotions and the way in which they can harm us. According to Leticia García, from the Mexican Psychoanalytical Society, feeling guilty indicates that we’re harming ourselves in some way, whether harming our body, health, or emotions.
When we overeat, we’re using food to deal with our emotions. The problem of “drowning” our feelings in food is that we may feel better for short time (immediate pleasure), but this cozy feeling is quickly replaced by guilt and shame. These feelings make us overeat – again- and fall into a vicious circle.
Furthermore, eating with guilt makes us feel anxious. When our body notices this anxiety, the hypothalamus (an almond-size gland located in the middle of our brain) sends a signal to produce adrenocorticotropin (ACTH). This substance stimulates the suprarenal gland to produce a hormone called cortisol, also known as the “stress hormone”. When we produce too much cortisol, our body begins accumulating fat, mostly around our belly.
Make Peace with Food
Food is neither bad nor good by itself; those are just labels we put on them. The problem arises when we feel guilty after eating food we consider as “bad”, and which we even didn’t enjoy! That’s why we shall reconsider our relationship with food and look for the nice side of it.
Below you’ll find some tips that can help you make peace with food:
- Don’t criticize yourself over and over. Silence that voice in your head which constantly disapproves of you. Begin by telling yourself that you care about yourself out of love.
- Enjoy food. Remember that the food you eat gives you the energy to go around every day, and it doesn’t have to be tasteless.
- It’s not about “being on a diet”, you shall follow a regime that helps you achieve a healthy weight, as well as a happy and fulfilling life. You can find many delicious recipes in our website.
- Stop eating when you feel full. Your body is wiser than you and send you a satiety signal when you’ve got enough food. Listen to it.
- Only eat when hungry. If out of nowhere you have an irresistible desire of eating a very specific something, it’s a craving. If you feel full, but cannot stop eating, it’s anxiety. “True” hunger gives you an “empty-stomach feeling”, it even hurts.
We should learn to be more flexible with ourselves and with our food. In such way we will enjoy our food more, without guilt, and it will even be easier to follow a more balanced diet that includes all kinds of food. What are you waiting for? #DecideItNow.
by Forma Vital | Sep 28, 2017 | Our blog |
Happiness might very well be the ultimate human aspiration. From our own little corner, we all pursue a formula or any method to achieve it. Unfortunately, most of our efforts are fruitless or bring us but a very short-term happiness.
What if I told you that there are some successful techniques you can easily incorporate into your daily routine to make you happier? Sounds great! But before we get there, let me explain how emotions work and what they have to do with our being happy.
How Emotions Can Lead (or Not) To Happiness
Emotions add spark to our lives and are a reaction to external factors. Thus, they influence on how we act, though not always in a good way. That’s why it is important to learn how they affect us and how to make the best out of them.
Let’s start explaining that emotions have both mental and physical aspects. The mental aspect has to do with how we feel towards something or someone and how it affects us; the other aspect is the physical response we have about that emotion.
What you cannot lose sight of, is that negative emotions – as much as they might hurt – are also important. They keep us alert about dangerous people or situations. As a matter of fact, research also shows that the healthiest psychological pattern is to be opened to a broad variety of emotions. In that way, we won’t miss out many valuable parts of the human experience.
Happiness In Theory
There are a bunch of different theories about how emotions can be shaped, but one of the most interesting ones is the facial feedback hypothesis. According to this theory, the way we gesticulate (e.g. frowning, smiling) can make emotions more, or less intense. Hence, if you keep on smiling (as a conscious effort) you’ll enjoy things more than if you’re frowning.
We also use facial feedback when we recognize emotional expressions in other people. When we see others smiling, we’re prone to smile as well, and that helps our brains understand others’ emotions.
Happiness Can Be Trained
Positive Psychology is a scientific study that look for actions or exercises that can increase happiness. The idea is that if we reinforce positive traits we can lead meaningful and fulfilling lives.
Happiness has not only proved to boost our mental health, but our physical health as well. Research has shown it strengthens our immune system, prevents us from chronic diseases, and it’s also true that happier people live longer.
If you’re positive about becoming a happier person, you should begin questioning yourself which thoughts and actions you can change to become happier. Researchers have found that some thoughts, such as forgiving, expressing gratitude, being optimistic, or retelling all those good things happening around help us to focus onto positive things.
Other kind of decisions can also play a big part in your happiness. For instance, if you decide to change your habits and become more active and healthier, the process of achieving it may bring you positive emotions that will make you happy. Losing weight, studying something different, or have a new hobby, may also be very good options. Don’t waste more time. #DecideItNow, happiness can’t wait!
by Forma Vital | Sep 21, 2017 | Our blog |
Beauty has obsessed humankind throughout centuries and geographies. Though, the beauty standards – mostly feminine ones – we watch every day over the media are, by far, pretty different from those existing many years ago, and even to those in not so far away places.
For instance, during prehistory (40,000 – 5000 BC), feminine beauty consisted on voluminous breasts, belly, and hips, as can be seen in the Venus of Willendorf or the Venus of Laussel. On the contrary, in the Egyptian culture (2955 – 332 BC), beauty lied in proportion. Therefore, women were expected to be slim, with smalls breasts, but wide hips. It’s interesting this was one of the first cultures to worry about ageing, and there’ve been found remains of antiaging lotions and ointments.
Greeks (1146 BC – 146 AD.) and Romans (753 BC – 475 AD) have been our foremost influencers in what refers to canons of beauty. For them, beauty had to reflect symmetry in its proportions; that’s why their sculptures represent women rather robust, with large eyes, sharp nose, and pointy cheeks and chin. The masculine ideal was tall, toned, with wide forehead (a sign of intelligence), a perfect side face, and a powerful jaw.
Greco-Roman standards were revived during the Renaissance (15th – 16th centuries). Take a look at Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, or at Michelangelo’s David, and you’ll get the idea. Later, the Baroque (17th – 18th centuries) was an age of excesses: both men and women wore heavy make-up, elaborated wigs and garments which hid rather chubby bodies.
This, regarding western standards. However, the concept of beauty has not only change through time, but it also varies through geographies. Let’s see.
Beauty in America and Beyond Borders
Even if recent studies on human beauty have proved that, despite historic periods or cultures, humans base their concept of beauty on symmetry, it’s really interesting how it is conceived in other latitudes.
In China, Xishi, Wang Zhaojun, Diaochan, and Yang Yuhuan, better known as the “Chinese Four Beauties”, are still feminine beauty standards. These four women represent, mostly, the moral virtues expected of women, and which have little to do very with their physical appearance.
In France, women use almost no make-up, and they do not spend lots of time in the gym or dieting either. Thailand would the opposite, where some women go through painful and risky procedures just to look more Caucasian .
As for maori women, in New Zealand, their fairest feature is a facial tatoo called ta moko. Some years ago, it was made using bones of birds (nowadays they use machines), and they’re a symbol of their social status within their tribe, besides making them more attractive. And what about the women from the Kayan tribe, in Burma, where they place brass rings on their necks to make them longer.
In America, one need only to take a look at any magazine, or turn the TV on to find out which are the current beauty standards: tall women, slender-but-busty, very small waist, and don’t forget, a perfect derriere. An ideal pretty hard to achieve for most of us.
Fortunately, these standards have been changing, and the concept of beauty is much more inclusive. Today, we can see “real”, healthier, and happier women as role models in the mass media. We all want to be more beautiful, but beauty lies, in great measure, on being satisfied with ourselves. Our objective should be to achieve a healthy ideal, appropriate to our physical constitution and lifestyle. Here in Forma Vital we can help you fulfill your dream, #DecideItNow
by Forma Vital | Sep 14, 2017 | Our blog |
One of our main concerns when starting a weight-loss program is how much weight should we lose to achieve our “ideal weight”. Though there are several indexes and formulas to calculate everyone’s ideal weight, they might not be as reliable as we think. Let’s take a look at the most common ones.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
The most famous of all indexes, the BMI is a measure of body fat based on height, weight, and age that applies to adult men and women. Though there’s a specific formula to calculate your BMI number, you can try in many calculator websites to find it out. Following is the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended body weight based on BMI values for adults.
However this index is not truly reliable, since it doesn’t consider the wide variety of body types, nor the distribution of muscle and bone mass. Besides, it may overestimate body fat in athletes and others who have a muscular build, and underestimate body fat in older persons and others who have lost muscle.
Waist Circumference
The measure of your waist size is considered a clear signal of the risks that come with overweight and obesity. If your waist size is greater than 35 inches (80 cm) for women (not pregnant) or greater than 40 inches (94 cm) for men, you’re at higher risk to develop heart conditions and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, abdominal fat is directly linked with high bad cholesterol that can clog arteries and lead to heart attack.
Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR)
This ratio has become very popular lately since it’s easier to calculate than BMI, it works for any race, age, or gender; and you don’t even need a measuring tape or scale to use it. Its motto reads: “Keep your waist to less than half your height”. That means that if you are 5’5” (1.65 m) your waistline should be smaller than 33 in (84 cm).
One of the advantages of this method over the BMI is that the WHtR may give a more accurate assessment of health for serious athletes, especially body builders, who have a higher percentage of muscle and a lower percentage of body fat, or for women who have a “pear” rather than an “apple” shape.
Body Fat Percentage
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (September 2000) published a study showing that body-fat percentage may be a better measure of your risk of weight-related diseases than BMI. There are several methods to measure your body fat; here at Forma Vital we use the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), which is a rather simple method which differentiates between fat mass and fat-free mass.
According to Health Check Systems, The American Council on Exercise has categorized the range of body fat percentages as follows:
As you have seen, there are meaningful limitations to all the formulas and indexes to calculate the ideal weight, mostly due to the simplicity of calculations: they only factor in weight, height, and gender. None of them consider physical disabilities, extreme ends of the spectrum, activity levels, or muscle mass to body fat ratio, which is the real, visible body composition.
Therefore, if you’ve made your mind on achieving a healthy weight, we strongly recommend to contact a professional who can help you reach your goal in the healthiest possible way. #DecideItNow
